BENGALURU: Since the cybercrime station’s inception in Bengaluru in March 2017, as many as 12,000 cases have been registered. But so far, only 144 arrests have been made. Worse is that none of the arrested have been convicted till date.
Cyber cops blame this on being understaffed. As of now, the station has just 20 members, including four field officers. “Once the field officers go out to make an arrest, progress in other cases suffers,” said police inspector in-charge Yeshvanth Kumar.
According to cops, most of the arrests were made in connection with data theft, OTP misuse and online crimes where obscene pictures were posted online. Several cases are, however, yet to be cracked.
“Most of the black hats (a hacker who violates computer security for personal gain or maliciousness) are not even from Karnataka. They will be operating from any part of the country or abroad, which makes it difficult for us. Once the case goes to court, it takes time for one to get convicted. We have been pushing for eight Cyber Economic and Narcotic Crime police stations, but that has been delayed due to elections. We are awaiting approval from the state in this regard,” says Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Girish S.
A source in the cybercrime department said that in cases where money has been withdrawn fraudulently, they mainly look at retrieving the money, rather than going after the culprit. “With so many cases, it is impossible to go after all culprits. Instead, we try to at least ensure that the victims get their money back,” the source told TNIE.
As of now, only a single conviction has been made in the entire state wherein 40-year-old techie was found guilty of creating morphed nude pictures of a woman friend.
Cyber cops get trained, better facilities
Cyber cops have received their first round of training from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and Infosys. The cyber station also recently received as many as 15 new equipment with updated software. “Several companies have approached us with new technology. We are open to new technology coming our way to keep us updated,” a member of the cyber team said. Girish S admitted that a lot needs to be done to catch up with the changing nature of cybercrime. “Officers are trained, but the software used is not up to the mark,” he said.
‘Need more women in cybersecurity space’
Bengaluru: Speaking to TNIE at the 11th Best Practices Meet, CEO of Data Security Council of India (DSCI), Rama Vedashree, said, “There is a need to address the skill gap in the field, especially when it comes to women. Even cities like Bengaluru have few women working in the field, as they are not as exposed to such opportunities. The number of women in cyber security is less than half the number of women in the IT field.”
DSCI, along with Microsoft’s CSR wing and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), launched the Cyber Shikshaa programme to train women from tier-2 and tier-3 cities in this field, in October 2018. Their aim is to train 1,000 women over three years. “From September this year, we will begin our second year of the programme. We will also launch an online training programme to reach 2,000 women,” she said. The programme has already been conducted in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Noida, Srinagar and more places. So far, 252 women have been trained in batches of 30-each.